Numerous embodiments of manually operated spray bottles are well known in the art. Such spray bottles are used for a wide variety of applications such as applying water, detergents, herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers and other materials to designated areas. Typically, the spray bottles can be operated to produce different spray patterns ranging from a fine mist to a concentrated stream. Most such spray bottles comprise a container for holding a liquid and a spray head or hand operated pump connected to the container for dispensing the liquid. Numerous manually operated spray heads are known in the art, representative examples of which are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,061,202 to Tyler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,129,856 to Boris, U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,478 to Tada, U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,363 to Beres et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,835 to Tasaki, U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,890 to Martin, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,442 to Harris et al., the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.
Containers for such spray bottles are also well known. At the present time, most such containers are molded from plastic materials that are substantially rigid after manufacture. As such containers are often designed to hold a substantial volume of liquid, the resulting space requirements and difficulties in handling such containers can complicate transportation and retail display of the spray bottles and thereby increase product costs to the consumer.
The transportation and retail display associated with such spray bottles would be greatly reduced if the volume of such containers could be reduced without affecting the carrying capacity of the containers.